Brig. Gen. (Rtd) Zia Ahmed, the newly appointed BTRC chairman, told a presentation meeting of the Telecom Infrastructure Operators of Bangladesh (TIOB) recently that BTRC would make all-out effort to stop illegal VOIP.

He said the commission would also take appropriate steps for smooth functioning of private sector-telecom enterprises operating under the policy of International Long Distance Telecommunications System (ILDTS).

?Let all of us work together to help build a Digital Bangladesh, as visualized by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina,? he urged them.

The presentation was made by the TIOB vice-president, Brig. Gen (retd) Mustafizur Rahman, on various functional aspects of International Gateway (IGW), Inter-connection exchange (ICX) and International Internet Gateway (IIG).

Members of TIOB, senior BTRC officials and representatives of Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL), private-sector IGW, ICX & IIG operators and submarine cable operators attended the presentation session, held at the commission?s office.

The meeting was informed that the private-sector telecom enterprises invested nearly Tk 400 crore and generated employment opportunities for more than 1,000 qualified professionals.

The public-sector company BTCL and Submarine Cable Operators have strength of about 15,000 employees.

The TIOB entities have already contributed Tk 130 crore to the public exchequer on account of license acquisition and renewal fees.

The total annual revenue earning of government from the private-sector telecom enterprises under ILDTS policy is likely to be Tk 2,500 crore. The percentage of revenue sharing of IGWs with BTRC is @ 51.75% while the ICXs 65.75%.

The government was earlier deprived of this revenue due to illegal VOIP call termination.

The TIOB also highlighted the challenges faced by it due to VOIP call termination and generation.

The TIOB suggested a package of remedial measures, including providing technical facilities for the monitoring of the activities of Internet Service Providers (ISP).

It also suggested taking legislative measures for punishment of those responsible for VOIP call termination and cyber crimes.